Forty-One Blocks

A book-match is a mirror. Two adjacent slices from the same block, opened like the pages of a book, so the veining runs symmetrically outward from a central seam. Done well, it is the single most arresting surface available to an interior. Done badly, it is a very expensive mistake with no remedy.

For The Regent Penthouse we needed seven continuous metres across four openings. That required a block of a particular height, a particular consistency, and a vein pattern that would survive being mirrored.

The yard

We reviewed forty-one blocks over four days. Thirty-three were rejected on vein. Five were rejected on height. Two had micro-fracturing at the top edge that would not have survived the cut.

You do not choose marble. You wait until a block agrees with the drawing you already have.

Cutting once

The selected block was dry-laid at the quarry, photographed at high resolution, digitally mapped against our elevation, and only then cut. The whole sequence took eleven weeks. The installation took two days.

That ratio — eleven weeks of decision, two days of action — is a fair description of how we work generally.